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Warrant Officer
This is a partial glossary of terms, most nautical, some are not, but, may deserve an explanation for the reader, contained in the Hornblower series with explanations. See also Glossary of Nautical Terms in Wikipedia and Wiktionary's Nautical Terms. This will be an ongoing list and explanations will be added in the near future. * Aback—or all aback, the ship now facing directly into the wind, causing the ship to stop and perhaps begin to move sternward. * Abaft—to the aft end or the stern end of the ship relative to another object. Abaft the Mizzen * Admiral—senior officer of the navy. A naval officer whose authority extends to two or more ships. From lowest to highest, Rear Admiral (Admiral of the Blue), Vice Admiral (Admiral of the White), Admiral (Admiral of the Red). A ship accommodating an admiral hoists his flag to indicate his presence. * Anchor—a device to keep a ship or boat to a location, let overside from a chain or cable, the anchor lies on the bottom and keeps the vessel from drifting. * Avast—stop what you're doing. Avast there. * Awash—a ship that is so low in the water that water is constantly washing over the deck. * Back (in reference to wind)—a counter-clockwise (anti-clockwise) change in wind direction, for example, from the east toward the north, the wind is said to back. The wind is backing, sir. Compare to veer. * Beam—the widest part of a ship from port (larboard) to starboard. A ship or other object is observed directly to the side of the ship, it is said to be abeam or on the port (larboard) beam. * Beat or Beating—lying as close as possible to the wind. Beating her way up the Channel. * Beat to Quarters—preparing for battle, so said because in the days of sail, the ship was called to quarters by a drum beat so as to notify the entire crew. * Becket—splicing the end of a line so as to form a loop or eye. Of many uses, a becket line can be used at the wheel to hold the wheel in position so the helmsman can leave the wheel unattended for a short time. * Belay—an order to halt an activity; to make a line fast around a cleat or other fitting. * Belaying pin—a short bar, moveable, to tie off running rigging. * Binnacle—the mount for the ship's compass. * Bitts—a post or pair of posts mounted on the bow of a ship for tying off ropes or cables. * Bos'un—boatswain, a warrant officer or petty officer responsible for boats, rigging, ropes, and sails, and 'pipes' commands to crew members. * Bow chasers—cannon mounted on the bow to fire upon ships ahead, usually of longer range than amidships mounted guns. * Bowline—a knot to make a loop of fixed size; a line attached to the leech of a sail afixed forward (toward the bow) to keep the sail taut. * Braces—a line afixed to the end of a yard and tied off aft, used in pairs (port and starboard), these are used to set the angle of the yard to the wind. * Brail—small lines on a sail running from the luff to the leach to allow taking in of some of the sail to present less cross-section to the wind, brail up is to take in some of the sail in this manner. * Brig—a sailing vessel with two masts, the fore and the main, both square-rigged. * Brigantine—similar to a brig, except the main mast is for-and-aft rigged. * Bulkhead—an upright wall inside the ship. * Bulwark—pronounced "bulark", a raised wooden wall about four feet tall extending above the weather deck to keep crew members and objects from falling overside. * Cable—a large rope, such as the anchor cable; also, a unit of length, 100 fathoms in the Royal Navy. * Capstan—on board ship, a large winch powered by crew members inserting bars into holes and walking in a circle, used to take up the anchor and other tasks. * Captain—as a Royal Navy rank, an officer between Commander (aka, Master and Commander) and Admiral. Formally referred to as Post-Captain to distinguish from a "Captain by courtesy" (see continued below), and differentiated into those officers with less than three years seniority and those with more. Also, the individual (either a civilian or in the Navy independent of rank) in overall charge of a single ship or large boat is addressed, by courtesy, as "Captain". * Carronades—a short cannon, smooth-bore, of cast iron used to fire upon other ships or crew. * Chains—small platform extending from the side of the ship on either side to extend the shrouds a bit farther out to better support the mast. i.e. main chains, fore chains, mizzen chains. * Chocks—wedge-shaped wooden blocks supporting the ship's boats while stored on deck. * Commodore - a temporary position (not a formal rank) given to a senior Post Captain and granting him authority over a ship or ships other than his own (see "Admiral"). Used in situations when a small squadron of ships must operate independently from the main squadron or fleet on a special mission and a commanding admiral is either unavailable or unwarranted due to the mission's scope. The position is always rescinded at the end of the mission. * Compass—device used to determine direction of sail, made with a magnet mounted on a card with point or degree markings. The magnet aligns itself with the magnetic field of the earth the card indicating magnetic north. In order to accurately determine bearing, the observer must also know the deviation between magnetic and true north. * Coxswain—pronounced "cox'n", the helmsman or crew member in command of a boat. * Cutter—a single-mast boat, usually fore-and-aft rigged. The mast is usually stepped farther aft than in a sloop. * Entry port—a gap in the bulwark where personnel enter or leave the ship. * Eye of the wind - the direction FROM which the wind is blowing. * Forecastle—pronounced 'fokesl', a partial deck built above the main deck, usually where the crew members berth. * Fore mast—on ships with two or more masts, the forward-most mast. * Foretopsail—sail on the foremast above the main course. * Fother (a sail)—to insert short ropes through many points on a sail and frayed to make a sort of mat, used as a patch to seal a hole in the hull temporarily until it can be repaired. * Frigate—a naval ship-of-war, smaller than a ship of the line, with a single gun deck, usually used for patrolling rather than in the line of battle. * Grommets—reinforced holes in corners and edges of sails through which pass bowlines, clewlines, buntlines, etc. * Halyard—a halyard is used to hoist a yard up the mast, or to raise a flag. Derived from "Haul Yard". * Head—the forwardmost and uppermost part of a ship; the ship's toilets are here, since the wind is usually from aft. * Headsail—any sail forward of the foremast, such as spritsail and forestaysail. * Heave to—to stop the ship's motion while maintaining the ship's heading by trimming the sails to work against each other, cancelling the net force on the ship's hull. * Jeers—the lower yards are suspended by the jeers. * Jib—a sail of fore-and-aft rig rigged ahead of the mast where the luff of the sail is forward of the mast; note: a Genoa is mounted the same, but, the luff extends aft of the mast. * Knightheads—two timbers rising from the keel to the deck to support the bowsprit. So named because the head of the timber was carved as a man's head. * Knot—one nautical mile per hour. A piece of wood, usually triangular, is tied to a line on which knots are tied such that when thrown into the water and the line let out for a specified time, the number of knots indicates ship's speed. * Larboard—historical name for the port, or left side of the ship. The name port was adopted because larboard and starboard could be confused in weather or high noise levels. * Lazarette—a compartment below the weather deck at the stern. It usually is used to store spare sails, lines, etc. * Lead—a weight at the end of a rope when thrown overboard sinks to the bottom to determine the depth of the water. Frequently, a wad of wax is stuck to the bottom of the lead so particles from the bottom adhere so the crew can determine the characteristics of the bottom. * Leeward—downwind, as opposed to windward; lee shore, a shore downwind of the ship, dangerous because it is difficult to keep the wind from pushing the ship into the shore. * Lieutenant—the lowest commissioned officer rank, above Midshipman, below Captain. * Lugsail—a quadrilateral sail, which the top of the sail is fastened by a spar to the mast off-center of the spar. * Mainchains—see Chains. * Main Mast—on ships with two masts, the after mast, on ships with three or more masts, the third mast. * Mast—a vertical post which support yards and sails. On ships with two or more masts, the second mast is the main mast, the forward mast is the foremast, the third is the mizzen. If there is a fourth, it is usually referred to as the jack. * Master—Senior officer, usually a warrant officer, responsible for navigation. * Midshipman—a candidate for officer training for position as Lieutenant. * Mizzen Chains—see Chains * Mizzen mast—the after mast on ships with three or more masts. * Poop—a high deck on the after part of the ship. NO, THE HEAD ISN'T HERE, IT'S AT THE HEAD OF THE SHIP. * Port—the left side of the ship, formerly larboard which was deprecated to prevent confusion between larboard and starboard. * Quarterdeck—the aftermost deck of a ship, usually the officers are berthed here. * Quarters—actions stations for battle. See Beat to Quarters. * Ratlines—short lines tied from shroud to shroud to support them, also used by crew members to climb aloft. * Reefed—reducing the size of the sail by taking it partially in to reduce effects of wind. * Rudder—a steering board in the water at the stern for steering the boat or ship. * Sail—a large sheet of canvas suspended from yards to allow the wind to propel the vessel. * Scuppers—openings in the bulwarks at deck level to allow water an the deck to escape overside. * Scuttle-butt—a barrel with a hole filled with water for crew members to drink from. The term is also used to mean gossip. * Sea anchor—in general, any material or construction made fast at a ship's bow and thrown into the water creating drag that keeps the ship's bow pointing (more or less) into the wind, thereby reducing the amount of leeway a ship makes and allowing the ship to ride over sea swells with greater safety during storms. * Sextant—a device consisting of a small tube and a couple of mirrors, one sighting the horizon, the other a celestial object, such as the sun. As one peers through the tube, one half of the view is of the horizon, the other is adjusted to bring the image of the object to match the horizon. Reading the scale determines the angle between the object and the horizon. Refering to a nautical ephemeris, one can determine the declination, or angle above the horizon of the object at the equator on a given date, can mathematically determine the latitude position of the ship. * Ship of the Line—a warship designed to be used in the line of battle. At the time of Hornblower ships of the line could be from 50 to 140 guns, 70 to 74 being the most common, with two gundecks about 150 to 170 ft long. * Ship's bell and watches—Since the only timepieces on board a naval ship at the time of Hornblower was the ship's chronometer and whatever pocket watches officers might own, there needed to be a system of keeping time for all hands. See separate article. * Shrouds—Several ropes fastened to the top of each lower mast to the sides of the ship to support the mast from damage due to wave action and pressure of the wind on the sails, shrouds for upper masts were fastened to lower masts. Shrouds were connnected together with short horizontal lines, referred to as ratlines, to distribute the load equally among the shrouds. * Sloop—at the time of Hornblower, a sloop was usually a small ship of 20 or fewer guns, usually used to transport despatches, etc. acting as a 'messenger' for the fleet. * Starboard—the right side of the ship facing forward, so named from the early days of sailing, scandinavian sailing ships had a 'steering board' usually mounted on the right side of the ship; the term became shortend to star-board, and later applied to that side of the ship. * Sternchaser—one or two guns mounted at the stern so as to fire upon another ship attempting to overtake the ship. * Sternsheets—the back of one of the boats, usually occupied by the person steering with the tiller and by officers. * Tack - the side of the ship from which the wind is blowing: a ship on the starboard tack has the wind blowing from her right side; a ship on the port tack has the wind blowing from her left side. Also, to change from one tack to the other by turning the ship so her bow passes through the eye of the wind (see "wear"). * Tackles— * Thwart—on an open boat, a board mounted across the boat, upon which sat the officers and crew. * Topsail—the sail above the mainsail. * Topgallant—the sail above the topsail. * Veer (in reference to wind) - a clockwise change in wind direction, for example, from from east toward the south the wind is said to veer. Compare to "back". * Warrant Officer—crew members above the rank of petty officers, below the rank of Lieutenant. The ship's surgeon, the master, carpenter, etc. those with experience in their areas of knowledge given their rank by special warrant. Midshipmen were also considered warrant officers as they were in training to be Lieutenants. * Wear - to change from one tack to the other by turning the ship so her stern passes through the eye of the wind (see "Tack"). * Weather (to weather)—to be able to sail around a point of land, i.e. to weather Ushant is to be able to sail around Ushant on the way north or south. * Windward—in the direction of the wind. An object such as an island or ship that is upwind of the ship is said to be windward. * Yard—a horizontal spar from which a sail is suspended. The yard to suspended from the top of the mast, and the sail is suspended from yard. Category:Main Article